Lapland park gets legal warning

Trading standards has said it is considering legal action against the owners of a Lapland-style theme park criticised by visitors as a "scam".

The Lapland New Forest attraction on the Hampshire-Dorset border closed on Thursday after thousands of complaints.

Organisers directed people to its website for information about obtaining a refund but that shut down on Friday.

Dorset County Council's trading standards said it wants to take action but was getting advice.

In a statement it said: "We want to take legal action and are currently taking advice from a specialist consumer barrister and the Office of Fair Trading in order to make sure we are in the strongest position to move forward.

"The council is looking into a range of legal options, including how to help consumers get their money back and the action that can be taken against Lapland New Forest Limited for misleading consumers.

"We cannot give any further details, as this might prejudice any legal action we do decide to take, which will not help consumers."

People trying to obtain refunds should write to the registered address of Lapland New Forest which they can obtain through Consumer Direct.

The firm running the park said it had closed the attraction because of "intentional organised crowd manipulation and event sabotage".

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